


THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - or The truth about Rey's past

by Alle__Panda



Series: Reylo Theories [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark Side Rey, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Sith relic, Speculations about episode IX TROS, Speculations and potential spoilers??!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-05 02:12:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20481152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alle__Panda/pseuds/Alle__Panda
Summary: The Resistance seeks help after the destruction of the main part of the fleet, while Rey struggles to repair the broken lightsaber. With the help of Treepio she thinks she can find a solution to her problem in an old relic that, as it seems, is located nothing less than Jakku, her former home planet. So Leia asks to Poe and Finn to help her gatering the mysterious object. After some troubles with the first order, they finally manage to reach their goal. But then the object seems to be cursed and a sort of spell comes down on Rey, in the same instant she puts her hands on it, a mysterios darkness rises into her soul and body. And het friends are helpless witnesses of her unexpected change. At the ssme time, far away on board of his Dreadnaught, Kylo Ren finds himself connected with this new version of Rey, after the long silence she put down after the battle of Crait. He can't believe at what he sees. Than the connection is severed from her side and he find himself totally stunned. It's then that he finally hears the voice of his long dead huncle taunting him for the first time. "I told you we would have seen each other again Ben"...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just some speculations for fun.

When they finally landed on Jakku, their ship had been already tracked by the first order. She didn't knew how was that possible. Proabably, she reasoned, someone had betrayed them when they landed on Kuruma outpust during the trip on the last planet they had visited before to approach Rey's former homeplanet. Or maybe they only ended up to be very unlucky and caught the attention of the first order by chance. Anyway, what Rey knew for sure, was that she, Finn and Poe, really needed to get rid of their unbidden companions as soon as they could. Chewe was sitting at her side on the cockpit as ever since she started to fly the Millennium Falcon herself. A sense of frustration forming into her stomach at the simple view of the enemy, coming up at the horizon. Rey took in a deep breath full of frustration and then she prepared herself for the battle..


	2. Chapter 2

After a long struggle and a desperate run in the middle of the desert, Poe, Rey and Finn finally stopped to rest their tired limbs. The sun of Jakku was unforgiving and Rey had to use one of her arms boundaries to wrap it around Finn's left leg. He had lost some blood because of a blaster bolt, and she and Poe had to drag him forward for a long mile. They were both exausted and thirsty and they had lost their way. 'I thought you knew where we were going' Poe said to Rey while trying for the umptheth time to make his gps work. The device whined a little into his hands, and Poe's face enlightened for a brief second, but then the sound became lower and the old wracked thing decided to die difinitively. A curse escaped from his mouth. 'I am sorry. I couldn't pay attention to the path while those first order ships where firing on us from every corner. Fortunately chewe managed to blow them up, but then Finn got shot and...' she was already apologizing. But then Poe looked again in her direction. His eyes so full of sorrow and despair that she found herself mute. 'No...I am the one who's sorry Rey. I know it's not your fault...' he muttred while drying away some sweat from his forehead with the palm of his hand. 'I am sorry. It's just  
...nothing personal, you know.. but I hate this backwater planet!' He declered. 'I already found myself lost in this damn desert. And I swore I wouldn't have come back here again. Never... And now we don't know where we are, Finn is harmed and we don't have any water or food...' he sighed in frustration sitting down on the sand with a hiss. 'The damn sun is not helping either...' he complained. Meanwhile Finn seemed to regain a little of strenght just in order to tell Poe to shut up. 'Oh please stop it! I can't stand the heat too, but this is not a good reason to blame it on Rey. I you had listened to me in the first place, letting Rey piloting the Millennium falcon, istead of taking the lead, we probably wouldn't have crushed down so badly and...'. 'Ehi, are you suggesting it was my fault then? Who just saved your life covering your back when you got shot?' Poe suddenly retorted feeling baffeled. 

. Only then 'enough!' Rey yelled then a them, not baring their arguing anymore. But Finn and Poe did 't even mind to listen. Not even when, scrutinizing the desert, she saw a big cave that could have granted them some shelter from the sun. When they finally resched for the shadow, a marvelled expression painted both of their faces.   
'Woooh, what is this place?' Finn asked then in disbielief. He didn't know why but the cavern suddenly made him feel alert and on guard. Rey, on the other hand, seemed to find her discovery less unpleasant. 'You won't believe me, but this is just the place we were looking for' she said, and only then she realized she had almost stop to breath. 'I can feel it now... a shit into the force...' her voice daydreaming and no more tha a whisper 'i remember this place...I have been her before...'.she said while walking forward into the darkness, not even bothering to help Finn to stay up on his legs anymore.  
Now both Poe and Finn looked at her with concern. Every sort of dispute between the two of them, completely forgotten.   
The kept following Rey into the depths of the cavern. A huge sense of fear increasing second by second and making their herth hummering wildly into their chests. They may have not been force users but they could feel that something powerful, dark, a strange energy was surrunding them all.  
Finn was already about to call Rey back when he and Poe realized that she was already wanished from their sight. Their peace far more slow then hers because of Finn's conditions.   
'Wait... Rey... where are you?...I have a bad feeling about this...Rey!...' Finn screamed. When no answer came from the darkness in front of them he felt his gut twist in fear. 'REY!!!'.


	3. Chapter 3

Eventually they managed to find a lift towrds the nearest Outpust without the attention of the first order. Her jedi mind powers had increased to the point that a simple gesture of her hand could do miracles. Rey held the relic into her hand while Poe, now less thirsty, rested his head on the metal wall of the cockpit of Falcon and looked back at her in awe. They were both truly exhausted but thrilled at the same time. Finn, on the other hand had fainted in the same moment Chewe had reached them on the dusted ground of Jakku. 'Woh my whole body hurts' Poe complained while looking at Rey in the eyes ' but I think it's worth the pain! Is it?' He asked clearly referring to the strange little box Rey was helding into her hands. 'Yes. Or so I hope. The etchings on the surface look pretty symilar to the one I saw on the Jedi texts...but, I still need a moment to study the object properly before to try' she answered with a shy smile. At that Poe sighed in comprehension. 'You are right. I I think it's time for us to take some rest too and reach our dear Finn in the realm of sleeping people. Today it had been and harsh day'. He ageed and then put one hand onto Rey's shoulder in a gesture that suggested friendship and cameraderie. Rey felt a wave of gratitude towrds Poe and smiled back at him. 'Poe...Thanks' she whispered then before he exited the room. 'You don't have to thank me. You should know you can always count on me and Finn' he said. This last statement made her immediately recall Finn's reaction to her choice to go on first into the cavern. 'Yeah... Finn really seems to care a lot about me too. But I wouldn't have expected him to worry that much...his screams are still ringing into my head' Rey tried to make fun of Finn's exaggerated apprehension even if a part of her felt deeply grateful to have someone like him to rely on. Poe, from his side, didn't seem to take the situation any less seriously. For a moment he seemed to the point to reach the doorway and lead to his quarters, but the he stopped on his feet and slowly approached her with a calming, reassuring voice: 'well...I don't know what happened down there today. But I can tell you that you that Finn's reaction had scared me too for good' he sighed. 'There was something in that place...something unsettling and..dangerous' he spoke, his eyebrows knotted and pensive, while Rey looked back at him with her eyes wide. 'I am just glad we are far away right now' he finished then with a smile full of relieve. 'Now, rest well. When we'll come back to the base , you'll have plenty of time to study this strange relic. Until then, your cot is waiting for you'.   
And saying so Poe Dameron left Rey to her inner thoughts.   
She pondered his words for a long moment, then she sighed and with the box still into her hands, she prepared herself to take the so earned rest Poe was talking about. But once she reached for her little bunk, as it always happened at night, since she sent herself to him on the Supremacy, her thoughts drifted to Kylo Ren. Not very much time had passed since they fought side by side in that trone room, but sill il felt like a long lost dream. Anytime Rey allowed herself to think about what could have happened between them if only he would have chosen her side instead of the first order, a piercing ached sprawled into her chest... and then, when she found herself at loss of ideas about how to make things work with the force, his voice from their first fight on Starkiller base, echoed into her mind too. She could have learned a lot about the force standing at his side. He was the one who could have taught something to her...really taught. Rey had always been good at salvaging broken things and being patient, on Jakku those were lessons to learn in order to survive. But now that the Resistance was enduring his most desperate hour, they needed hope. And Leia had repeated her even too many times how she was important to them all. The last jedi. A powerful warrior, a beacon of hope... But she knew she was no jedi... she didn't even possessed a whole lightsaber anymore. That was the reason why she was struggling so much to make it in time, to find a way to help the resistance as much quickly as she could. Kylo was also still a threat to them. And he still had got his lightsaber...   
Rey sighed heavily into her pillow and tried not to think about Ben for the millionth time. Having sevared the connection with him had brought only grief to her hearth, but she knew she had mo choice. She couldn't rely on him anymore. And despite Poe and Finn's attention, Rey was still feeling completely alone. She had to push away the olny person capable to understand her because she was a danger for her and for her friends. Anyway she was going to make it, even without his help. Or so she hoped...  
Anytime he struggled to open the bound from his side, she had to push herself to close it, with everty bit of her will and everytime she ended up weaker and more frightened than before. Rey take in a deep breath and then tried to make her mind blank and not to think anymore. She closed her eyes and rested on her bunk.  
The little box started to shine into the dark of her little room, but she was already half asleep when it happened. A strange dream filled her tired mind...


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Finn, who had been under bacta for the whole night, woke up with a yelp into the mad bay of the Resistance base. The nightmare he made was still playing into his mind, but he suddenly let out a sigh of relief in the same moment he remembered what actually happened to Rey in the cave. For a long moment he had truly believed she was in danger. He didn't know why, but that sensation had been so strong, his body seemed so certain that there was something dangerous lurking into that place, that he still couldn't believe they had made it, without any more trouble. Finn looked at the wrap band that Rey had used to cover his wound. It looked dirty with blood. Suddenly his mind came back to that moment. His eyes had caught sight of the strange tatoo she waa hiding under the wrap only for a brief moment, before that everything sat in motion.

The run, the pain, the warmth. And then finally the cave, some shade... no real harm to her friend. She came back to him with a serious face but nothing more. More over, from the moment they made it back to the Falcon, he was already fainted, and when he finally woke up Rey had already got that strange box into her hands.. He knew he should have felt proud of her, happy even, for the suxcess of the mission. But everything Finn was feeling about the whole situation was much less pleasant. His friend was slowly but inexorabily turning away from him She had barely spoken to him since they finally meet again after her mission to find Skywalker. He didn't know what he was expecting from her, but nothig seemed to be like before. Finn still remembered his discussion with Rose in Canto Bight, where the little smart engeneer had pointed out that his friend Rey would have been pretty different the moment she would have come back from her jedi training. Because those were experiences that may change someone forever, expecially someone who he already barely knew like Rey. Despite the strong feeling of friendship that had sprung between them, now Finn was dreading that Rose could have been right about Rey. She was still the brave and smart, altruist young girl he had met the first time he bumped on her on Jakku. But at the same time she looked different, less brighter, as if something inside of her had been turned off...

Finn sighed heavily into his pillow and then managed to get up and prepare himself for a new day, promising to himself that he would have tried to stay much closer to her, hoping that maybe, that way,she would have decided to speak with him about what was causing her so much trouble.

....

A week had already passed since she came back with the relic she descovered on Jakku, but nothing had changed. Treepio and Rey had deciphered everything that could have been important about it and the inscriptions on the box. But nothing. It didn't opned at all. And so Rey found herself to the starting point once again, with no teacher and no clue about how to repair her lightsaber anymore. She was starting to lose hope, day after day and her friends seemed to recognize that something was wrong with her, despite her great efforts to hide it. Finn above all, was always asking about her day and usually offered to take shifts in her company, but almost everytime she refused. What happened between her and B...Kylo Ren, he chose to remain Kylo Ren... was too personal to be shared with anyone. She still struggled to severe the connection anytime he tried to communicate with her and she was so tired...so damn tired...

Rey stared at the lightsaber she was holding into her hands and sighed. She had managed to repair the hilt, but the main problem still remained the boken crystal that had split in two halves. She took them on her hand while examining for the umptheth time the Jedi text that she and C-3P0 had tried to tranlate. She was still on the same page that talked about this relic that somehow seemed suppose to repair the broken kyber. Rey didn't really know what to do about it. Since the moment she found it she had already tried everything her mind had suggested her, in order to obtain a reaction from the strange object. She had tried to press the box with her fingers, to pull, then putting some weight upon it. Nothing. She had tried to open it using her mind, after a very long session of meditation. Nothing. She had wished for the little box to open with all of her being, she had pleaded also. Still nothing. Then she had taken less noble measures, using some tools, but even with all of her strenght, nothing moved inside or outiside of the damn thing. It remained excruciantly closed.She really didn't know what to think. The Jedi text only said a few words about the object, and to be honest, they even didn't sound too clear...

And so Rey suddenly felt the urge to do something she hadn't done in a while since the day of the battle of Crait. She started to cry. The kyber cristal still into her palm, while she closed her hand around it. In that same moment she saw the little box shine. It was a strange light. Purple sparks erupting from within while a strange feeling started to wash at the edge of her mind. A familiar sensation starting to catch her attention. It was raw and dark and cold. And it was calling for her...

'I have never felt so alone' her own voice ecohed into her mind.

But this time no answer came to let her feel better, wanted. Because she had shield herself from him...

And so ebruptly and totally unexpectandly the little box opened, all at once. Rey rushed to look at its contents and for a while she remain silent. Her gaze roamed into the box for a long moment, then she reached out to touch it, refusing to believe at her own eyes, only to end up even more disappointed when she find out that the little box was indeed totally empty. 

'How is it possible?!' Rey asked to herself still puzzled about the discovery. Her feeling of discomfort had grown even bigger than before and she didn't even thouth it was possible...

The little spark of hope she had felt when the little box had open, suddenly became a wave of desperation, embarassment and self loathig. 

For that damn thing she had risked the life of her friends and her own. Finn was still paying the price for that. Dr.kalonia had been optimistic about his leg, but for a while there had been a chance that he wouldn't have recovered for good. Rey still felt giulty about it and now... now she had to tell to her friends that it had been all for nothing. 

A new stream of tears started to form into Rey's cheeks. She was a total failure. She wasn't even a jedi, Luke barely taught her about the force...her parents had abandoned her.. she had nothing...she was nothing...

A what a nothing was supposed to do for The Resistance?

Rey's grief suddenly became umbareable. She was ashamed of her weakness. The loneliness into her hearth taking the best of her...

And it was then that something shifted into the force. Something wild, something that had always been there but that she had refused to pay attention to...

A voice, raugh and dark started to brush against her consciusness. A voice she recognized as her own fear and anger...

'You don't need them. You can stand on your own...More...you can pay back to ones that made you suffer this way...the only thing you have to do is let your true self go...it will be easy...No one will harm you anymore..." she told to herself "embrance the true power..then you will have everything you need..."

In that same moment Rey felt the kyber ctistal burning into her hand. The two halves moving towards each other...Her eyes locked on them.

But suddenly a knok at her door break the spell she had found herself trapped in. 

'Rey...Rey... It's me... are you there?' Finn's voice yelled from outside. "You didn't came for dinner and this is pretty unusual from you... are you all right? Rey?"

Only then, the voice of her best friend ranging out loud into her ears, Rey seemed to recollect herself. Suddenly she find out she had held her breath until then, and so she gulped in some air after puffing out a big sigh of relief. Then she used the palm of her free hand to sweep away some sweat from her forehead and in the same moment she realized it was as if her body had just run at high speed for a mile, instead of being standing still into her room. Her lungs lacked of air and her mind felt dizzy... she barely found her breath to answer to Finn before to look at her other hand where the two halves of the kyber cristal were still safely held. 

"I...I am fine...Just miss the hour while meditating...I'll be in there in 5 minutes.." she yelled a little out of breath. Her hearth still punding loudly into her throat and head. 

From the other side of the door Finn seemed to recognize that something was off with her because he added. 

"Are you sure you are okay? If you want I can wait for you...we can go there together..."

At that Rey Rey didn't know how to answer. She felt suddenly scared and relieved at the same time knowing that Finn still cared for her. But what had just happened to her, She didn't really know. And more over she wasn't intentioned to talk about it with anyone... not at all... she had to figured it out herself.

So Rey put down the kyber cristals and tried to recollect herself. 

'Thanks Finn...But as I said, I am fine. I'll be there in a minute..'

.....

Kylo Ren hasn't meditated in a very long time. But since his connection with Rey had been severed from her in person, it was his only way to reach out towards her force signature. Sometimes he could even feel what she was feeling. But that was something entirely different from being able to see her or even to talk with her...

At the beginning he was angry because of her betryal. Her choice to leave and let him alone in the throne room, after what she did in order to save her... He had killed his own master for her, for force's sake... but even that had not being enough at her eyes...

But when the days became weeks and the weeks turned into months, Kylo find himself incapable to mantain himself solid in his purpose to destroy her, as if everyhing else he had sworn to destroy...

He needed her. As much as he knew that he needed him... if only he had known a way to let her aknowledge about that...

He wasn't sleeping, he wasn't living...

Since they ways parted he had had visions of her that had left him restless. And the worst part was that he didn't even know if the visions he had in his dreams were true. 

The dream was always the same. They were fighting, lightsabers in theur hands. The landscape a familiar one. Starkiller base. The crimson of his saber crashing against the bright blu of the weapon into her hand. The one that had belonged to his family. It was more a memory than a vision... or at least it was like this at the beginning. Then everything shifted and the cold snow turned into blu water and rocks. And this time she was the one helding a red lightsaber. A saber with two parallel beams. Her gaze nothing he had ever seen on her face before. Her beutiful features almost deformed into a wild, terrific grimace of pure hatred. Her usually hazel eyes, had turned into a sick yellow. And with her pale, almost white skin, she reseambled more a rectile than a human being. Not at all the healty beautiful girl he knew that reminded him of sunshine and warmth. 

'Rey' he muttered to himself. Eyes closed and shoulders straight while sitting into the medative position onto the floor of his private quarters. His effort to reach was pushig him to discover his new limits... and that made him feel weaker and foolish... but at least he had to try...

The dream...the vision...still playing behind his eyelids disturbing his concentration...

She attacks him with fury and he responds in earnest with the same strenght until they reach an overhang on her left. And that's when things become even more confused... that's when it comes the part of the vision that he dreads more...

He swallows in anticipation. All of his senses turned on...

That's when the voice of his uncle catchs him completely unprepared.

'Hello Ben...I told you we would have met around again". 

And this scares him even more that what he knows it's about to come into the vision...


End file.
